Theory of Anomalous Resistivity and Turbulent Heating in Plasmas

General expressions for the d.c. resistivity and the heating rates of the electrons and the ions are obtained in terms of the spectral functions of particle correlation functions; the results are rigorous and applicable to both quiescent and turbulent plasmas. The method of analysis is based on the moment calculations of the first equations of the Bogo-liubov-Born-Green-Kirkwood-Yvon hierarchy for a multicomponent plasma. Definite predictions are made on the relative magnitudes of the electron and ion heating rates when the nature of the turbulent fluctuations is known. Some of the well-known formulas for the anomalous resistivity are obtained as specific cases of the present calculation. It is shown that a consideration of the critical fluctuations alone cannot account for the anomalous resistivity in a turbulent plasma.